PennDOT's HOP ClearPath Pilot Program: A New Approach to Streamlining Highway Permits in Pennsylvania

Each year, PennDOT issues approximately 15,000 to 16,000 Highway Occupancy Permits (HOP) to manage access to the more than 40,000 miles of state-maintained roadway. These permits, often issued to municipalities and developers, are required for any work or access within the PennDOT-owned right-of-way, such as driveway construction and utility work.

Faced with significant delays due to undefined decision points and incomplete application submissions, and despite PennDOT’s more recent policy and procedural updates, certain HOP applications cycled through multiple submissions, which often lacked pertinent documentation and information, leading to prolonged wait times, frustrated applicants, and stalled projects. These types of delays ultimately hinder economic development growth, impacting developers, businesses and local economies.

To address these issues, PennDOT, in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Transformation and Opportunity (OTO), launched the PennDOT HOP ClearPath Pilot Program. In support of the Governor’s Executive Order 2023-07, which focuses on eliminating regulatory barriers and promoting economic development across Pennsylvania, the pilot program is designed to streamline the HOP process by requiring “completeness checks” and capping review cycles, ensuring faster, more predictable permitting that balances highway safety with development needs.

“The pilot emerged from PennDOT’s ongoing efforts to modernize the HOP program,” said PennDOT’s Highway Occupancy Permit Program Manager Mike Dzurko. “While recent enhancements improved the application review process, gaps remained in establishing firm timelines and explicit submission guidelines. ClearPath was created to close those gaps and streamline the workflow.”

Launched in August 2025 in PennDOT Engineering Districts 4, 6 and 8, and a month later in PennDOT Engineering District 2, the pilot program’s core objectives are to:

• Deliver transparency and efficiency by providing applicants with clear decision points and expected timelines at each stage.
• Mandating a comprehensive “completeness checklist” of required items to ensure submissions are complete. This is completed before a technical review is conducted; incomplete packages are rejected, unlike the standard HOP process, which conducts technical reviews even on deficient submissions.
  
• Fostering collaboration through expanded opportunities for PennDOT-applicant meetings to minimize revisions and resolve outstanding issues. These changes shift the process from reactive to proactive, reducing administrative burdens and resolving issues sooner.
  

Ultimately, these objectives aim to shorten overall processing times.

A formal evaluation of the pilot program kicks off in spring 2026 to analyze metrics such as “completeness check” and technical review timelines, cycle completions, applicant surveys, and time savings. Based on the results, PennDOT will decide whether to integrate ClearPath as the HOP standard. This includes finalizing EPS updates to embed the ClearPath workflow. PennDOT has already identified those enhancements and will be prepared to implement them by spring 2026.

According to Dzurko, the team fully expects to see measurable results by the end of the pilot program. “Requiring complete applications upfront and capping reviews at three cycles should deliver significantly faster overall processing and reduction in time to permit issuance,” he said. “Cost-wise, this translates to lower administrative overhead and reduced applicant expenses and delays. Long-term, statewide adoption could streamline hundreds of permits annually.”